Live life on the wild side

Hey guys,  Jess here with a short blog following our first big outing as a family. Today we went on a visit to Oxford city centre for a day out to achieve a couple of goals.  1. Get out of the house 2. Test out being out with a newborn before we take on bigger adventures This meant planning feeds, changes, and expressing/breastfeeding on the go or in public.  We opted to drive up and take the pushchair, packed the bags with enough formula feeds to make up, as well as a back up ready to go feed just in case and plans to breast feed as one of the times I was due to express coincided with this.  Here are a few of the barriers we faced and others that I also considered.  1. Pushchair navigation- This will vary depending on what style, brand or size of pushchair you have, We have the out and about nipper sport- brought primarily for the purpose of running with him once he is older but also being ideal to use with him as a new born for outings, I have plans to take i...

  Hey Guys,  Jess here with a short chat about newborn feeding.  I am up to 4 weeks with a little one and have spent about 12 years in childcare. I have seen a  range of feeding and with my own nearly 1 month old I am combi feeding, this is a mix of bottle and breast feeding. Some people breastfeed, some bottle and some combi feed, and people will feed in different ways for different times, I know people who stop breastfeeding quite early and others who will keep breast feeding for many years.  Ultimately however you choose to feed is up to you and no one should be able to tell you otherwise because you have to find what works best for you and your family. #FedIsBest There still seems to be a bit of a stigma around bottle feeding babies, and you still see and hear things around Breast is best, there are rules around advertising initial formula for newborns in order to encourage breastfeeding and most commonly you will find people are being encouraged or advised ...

 Hey guys, Jess here, Today I want to share  a short advice blog with you following 3 weeks post birth, well just over 3 weeks, we were 3 weeks Wednesday just gone, although it doesn't really feel like it because it does feel like we lost a week whilst we were in hospital!  Those of you who have been following the blog will have probably already read the birth experience and some of my other tips, if you haven't, go check them out.  Okay so today I want to share some thought's advice and tips for 3 weeks post birth.  Firstly the thoughts: Initially my thought is how on earth has it already been 3 weeks! What felt like really long nights, long days and difficult times are 'mostly' behind me-though I know I still have many more sleepless nights to go-however they also feel like they went too quickly, He's no longer my little baby boy, though he still has the scrunch but its not fully noticeable till I look back over photos, however he is getting heavier.  My ...

(Contains amazon associates links)   Hey guys Jess here and today I'm going to share with you a brief put together of some of the things that have helped me post birth, this is not an exhaustive list of what works, but things that you might want to try and see if they help you.  First lets share a little of my journey, induced, mass blood loss, 6 days in hospital, feeding issues, jaundice baby, 2nd degree tear, low blood haemoglobin levels, stitches, haemorrhoids, constipation, several different pain meds, other meds and blood thinners. For the full birth story you can head here: https://livelifeonthewildside.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-birth-experience.html Yes I know this is going on the internet for all to see but 1. These are all parts of being human and pushing a child out of you, if your lucky you won't get these but there is always a possibility 2. once you have had several midwives, doctors, etc looking at various different body parts and constantly talked to th...

 Hi guys Jess here with a little blog.  Those of you who are parents and have been through the act or raising a child will have heard this phrase a lot.  "It gets easier." This is in response to several areas of a child's life, new born, teething, sleep regression, toddlers, threen-ager (age of 3 attitude of 13), fearsome 4 year old's, teen years, school years, puberty....you get it the list goes on.  But my though process today is does it get easier? Or does it just change. Instead why don't we just say,  This is a phase, no body has the one answer to cure all, we are all just winging it 90% of the time and you have to do what works for you.  Because let's face it that is more accurate!  I am still in the very early stages of parenting in the new born stage with a 2 and a half week old, but I have also worked in childcare with children from 4 months to 12 years for over a decade, I've told parents, it gets easier, this is just a phase, it will pass, w...

 Hey guys, Jess here, this post is a little different. Today I want to talk about a transition, the transition of becoming a butterfly.  I am a little bit of a bug enthusiast, that's not to say I can identify lots of different bugs but they fascinate me and I am always curious to find out more, butterflies have always interested me (and moths) how they go from these small wriggling caterpillars and literally cocoon themselves where they essentially destroy themselves to turn into something new, its a fascinating process and what gets me the most is how they completely break down but still recall key information such as where to feed.  The more I go through motherhood the more I associate it with the transformation of caterpillar to butterfly, you grow, break down and then are weirdly reborn, there is a shift into motherhood and you come out as a new person, sometimes its hard to let go of the old you and that can cause some issues with a loss of identity.  I naively ...

 Hi guys,  Jess here, and today I am 2 weeks post birth, little man is 2 weeks old and I want to talk a little about my Journey so far. Those of you who have read the last blog will know that my pregnancy ended in a bit of a birth 'experience', followed by 6 days in hospital before we were finally discharged, once we were home I was more at ease and glad to be back with hubby, the nights didn't seem so lonely and I was just glad to be back in my own bed and not living out of a bag. Tuesday we had a visit from the community midwife, she came to do a check on little one, check in around feeding, cord, jaundice, and check in on me, she checked my stitches and asked about my well being, and after 6 days stuck in hospital and finally being back home my well being was great, I was tired but that was to be expected, things hurt and ached still but I was ready to get back into a routine that I had control over, this was, it turns out going to be my biggest challenge.  The first 2...

 Hey guys Jess here,  Currently sat 12 post birth at home in the midst of the post birth life of having a new born, that's a story for another day though, today I want to chat bout the birth 'experience' a better term than birth 'Trauma', this was a phrase I picked up from 'How to raise a viking' by Helen Russell that I have started reading.  My birthing story started on the 26th March, about 2 am my water broke, or so I thought, they didn't really gush or trickle but blobbed, which wasn't what I expected, no contractions or anything like that just the waters breaking, so contacted the MAU and popped in to be check, and was advised to go home, check temp every 4 hours and if we got any changes, contractions or concerns come back, and if we didn't we would be called in.  The next 24 hours felt like the longest wait of my life! I don't do well with waiting at the best of times, I got occasional twinges but nothing huge, spent the day trying to ...